“Our brand reputation is enhanced as a result of our partnership with Award Force and we absolutely would recommend them.”

Country Music Australia

Background to the story

“Country Music Australia (CMAA) recognises and promotes excellence in Australian Country Music. Formed in 1992, Country Music Australia represents all aspects of the Australian country music industry. Our Association has a number of key objectives and one of these is to grow, manage and maintain the values and standards of the annual Country Music Awards of Australia and the annual Australian Academy of Country Music. Each year we celebrate and honour the outstanding success of Australian country music artists, performers, songwriters, producers and lifetime contributions at a star studded Golden Guitar Awards presentation in Tamworth during the Country Music Festival in January.

Operating with the highest integrity is critical for us and our members so when dissatisfaction was expressed with the awards system we had been using, we sought to make improvements. Award Force arranged a walk through with their system and we were impressed from the outset. It was a whole new clean look and would be far less labour intensive for all concerned. The Golden Guitar Country Music Awards are the apex awards and once the CMAA board and the Tamworth Council saw what Award Force’s system could do for us, we said yes and it’s been a great move for us!

Our experience | Award Force as our partners

Award Force assured us they would be able to configure their system to meet our needs and we felt confident that together we would collaborate on a process and work as partners to get exactly what we needed. The people we worked with are great – professional and 100% dedicated to ensuring we did our best in a very short timeframe. Our confidence in Award Force was rewarded as they demonstrated they understood the why, what and how of what is required to equip the awards process. It needs to be seamless and it is.

Award Force is an excellent partner in the truest sense and we trust them implicitly. They go out of their way to work around problems in a timely way and we always found their responsiveness fantastic. The look and feel of the software is modern and professional and it provides a good user experience.

The Results | Outcomes

We have received a 95% approval rating for the system performance which is terrific. Country music attracts multi-generational stakeholders so both entrants and judges come with different levels of computer literacy. There is a great deal of complexity behind the scenes of running the Golden Guitar Country Music Awards. The secret is in minimising the complexity and maximising the user experience and together with Award Force, we have achieved this goal.

Award Force introduced an integrated audio player so that judges can easily listen to streaming audio tracks and quickly switch between songs. This is a huge advantage for the judges who have extraordinary and critical roles to play in the success of the awards. Award Force understands this and their focus on making the access easy for both entrants and judges is clearly a winner. We have a much happier member base doing the nominations and people can see how it is fair and equitable, transparent and that it provides a very much more even playing field. It’s a positive, fair and democratic process in action and Award Force has played an integral part in this.

Our brand reputation is enhanced as a result of our partnership with Award Force and we absolutely would recommend them. We’re culturally aligned especially with authenticity and genuineness and Award Force went above and beyond for us and we congratulate ourselves on our decision to work with them.”